Social mobility – campaign briefing

How increased investment can support the positive associations between education and social mobility.

The government has said tackling the opportunity deficit – creating an open, socially mobile society – is our guiding purpose. There is a large body of evidence which demonstrates the positive associations between education and social mobility. The UK has a significant distance to travel in this regard. We argue for increased investment in education to support this aim.

Related research

Secures our economic future; make ours a civilised society; promotes active citizenship; enables people to play a full part in their community; strengthens the family, the neighbourhood and the nation. Colleges and universities in the UK collectively work towards these aims for both young people and adults.

Prison education has a demonstrable life-changing capacity. We argue for further funding for offender learning.

There is substantial evidence that funding for colleges and universities is an investment in the country’s future, both in terms of the ability to create jobs and help deliver social and economic equity. Currently spending on tertiary education by the UK is around 1.3% of gross domestic product. This compares to the average in OECD countries of 1.6%, with the UK well below leading economies such as the USA and Korea (2.6%), Canada (2.5%), Sweden (1.8%) and Japan (1.6%). We want the UK governments to take a lead in raising funding for tertiary education to the OECD average of 1.6% of GDP.

What our supporters say

“UK FE and HE was a world leader in high quality education on the large scale through its long and innovative track record in online courses. We are losing ground to other countries now, as institutions struggle to keep the day job going while managing the cuts, and have nothing left to invest in educational innovation. The knowledge economy needs this innovation. If we don’t invest in high quality teaching on the large scale we will lose the competitive advantage we once had.”